3 Mountains

[Veronica]

We've had to cancel our planned trip to Redwoods National Park next week. To make up for it we've decided to ride the three local mountains during our vacation time. First up will be Hamilton on Saturday 8/14. We'll be leaving Alum Rock Park at 8:15 AM.

We'll do Tam next, probably Sunday or Monday. We'll be leaving from Fairfax, heading out to Nicassio, Point Reyes Station and down 1 to Bolinas-Fairfax Rd. Probably won't go all the way to the summit, but will head down Alpine back to Fairfax. Start time - TBD.

Diablo will be Tuesday or Wednesday, meeting at Arbolado Park and doing the North side up and down. Start time - TBD.

Company is welcome. Pace will be fairly casual and if you've never ridden one of these and want to try it, we won't drop you.

Veronica

[aka_kim]

I would join you on at least one of the rides, but I'll be off riding 3 volcanoes next week. Your trifecta sounds really fun, so if you do it again I'd love to tag along.

[Veronica]

Have a great trip!

Veronica

[snapdragen]

I would join you on at least one of the rides, but I'll be off riding 3 volcanoes next week. Your trifecta sounds really fun, so if you do it again I'd love to tag along.

Always gotta one-up her, don't you. Veronica does three mountains, you do three volcanos....

[aka_kim]

Almost always .

Veronica does a half Ironman, I sit on my couch drinking beer.

[snapdragen]

Almost always .

Veronica does a half Ironman, I sit on my couch drinking beer.

We need a thumbs up smiley.

[jobob]

Veronica does a half Ironman, I sit on my couch drinking beer.

[Veronica]

New, evil shorts made me cut my ride short. Why do companies have to change the chamois every flippin' year? At least they are tri shorts so I can wear them to run in and at the gym...

Anyway, we only went part way up Hamilton, only as far as the climb after Grant Park. Only 22 miles, but with 3300 feet of elevation gain. We went back on Crothers, just to explore. Now I know why it is closed to traffic. I'm glad I wear mountain biking shoes, since the section where the road is gone is pretty darn steep!

It was a nice ride, San Jose was all fogged in so the initial climb was quite pleasant. We didn't see the sun until we started the descent down into Grant Park. Climbing up the other side in the sun was still pleasant as it wasn't too warm yet. And San Jose was still fogged in when we returned.

I am loving the new cassette on the Cervelo. We took off the 11- 25 and put on an 11 - 32. So much easier to keep my cadence where I want it on these climbs and no knee pain or achy muscles. That's always nice! We had to replace the Force RD with an Apex mid size. It's every bit as easy to use as the Force was, very nice, crisp shifting. I don't mind the 4 extra ounces on my bike to be able to have a better gear range for me. I could probably lose 4 ounces if I wanted to.

Thom is thinking maybe we'll do a bridge to bridge ride instead of Tam. That's one we haven't done yet and want to. Seems like a good thing to do while we're on vacation.

Veronica

[Veronica]

We did the Bridge to Bridge ride today. We waited until it had warmed up some in Martinez and the fog had cleared and did some yard work while it was still pleasant here at home.

We went across the Benicia Bridge first, rode through Benicia and Vallejo then across the the Zampa Bridge. The ride along the Carquinez Strait was a lot of fun - especially the closed to traffic part. It's hard to believe that was ever a road that had vehicle traffic on it.

We were down by the water in Benicia and you could really smell the saltiness of it. It's amazing to think how much the ocean pushes up the river. You'd think riding along the waterfront would be relatively flat, but it's not, 23.5 miles with 2,000 feet of climbing. We did have one nasty little hill that I used some very bad language about. It's rollers through Vallejo, with stop signs at the bottom of every freakin' hill. I got tired of having to blow off all that lovely momentum.

Tomorrow we're planning on Diablo.

Veronica

[jobob]

Oh neat! Have you ridden over the Benecia Bridge before? I haven't yet.

If you don't already have anything planned for Wednesday, I have a suggestion for you ...

Drive to the Martinez Amtrak and leave your car there, then ride up to Davis (~ 65 miles), have a late lunch, and go check out the US Bicycling Hall of Fame

(The USBHOF is only open Wednesday and Saturday, and on Saturday it closes at 2pm but on Weds it's open until 8 pm). Edit: Well crud, I just noticed that it doesn't open until 4 pm on Wednesday. Eh, I suppose you could sleep in and head out later in the morning ...

Then take Amtrak back from Davis to Martinez.

Here's a route. You'd go past Winters so you might want to stop at Steady Eddy's for a snack.

I'd join you but I have stuff going on this week.

[Veronica]

Nope, we hadn't ridden it yet. Thom had been wanting to since it opened. I think the view is much better from the Zampa though.

I'll give Thom your suggestion. He's the ride coordinator this week.

Veronica

[Bike Goddess]

Hey folks- the locals here spell it BENICIA.

Sorry we missed you. I was busy doing Pig Farm, Pinole, back to the Carquinez Bridge, then down through Crockett and UP Crockett Blvd. (That's a nice climb if you don't feel like doing Cummings Skway (we'd already done it earlier). Then we rode down Fkln Canyon paceline style (which meant I got to rest. Coming home across the Benicia Bridge we hit crosswinds- not much fun as that's a 2 mile passage.

Some of the riders went back on the Carquinez Scenic road so you might have seen them.

I've ridden to Davis from Benicia- it's about 63 miles to the UC Davis campus from my house. The club has done the ride to Davis and taken the train back to Martinez. I hear the train ride is quite fun. We'll do again probably this fall.

If any of you come this way, do let me know as I live at the end of 1st street overlooking the river. (We don't get that nasty smell down here, thank goodness). I'd be happy to see you!

Looks like the Benicia ride on Aug 29th is going to be a bridge to bridge ride with maybe some other stuff added depending on who shows up. So there's another opportunity for you.